of God and man. This definition, if accepted as correct, gives an immediate and easy key to the nature of feminine rights, for then the question simply is, "What are woman's duties, and what does she need for their performance?"

A full reply to this query would involve the enumeration of almost all circumstances that could by any possibility befall the female sex, but in summary terms woman's duties may be included as being religious, domestic, and social,-towards God, towards her relations, and towards society. Of the two classes of duty towards man, the domestic must be placed first; because the home, or the family as constituting the home, is the basis upon which society subsists, and must be made secure, lest all other social institutions fall and perish. What, then, are woman's duties in connection with home? As a "dutiful" daughter she will relieve her mother of domestic cares and anxieties, and will be the cheerful companion of her parent's quiet hours; as a sister she will soften the harshness of her brother's character; as a wife she will be a true helpmate to her husband, and manage, as she alone knows how, the various details of a household; and as a mother she will protect her children's infancy, instruct their childhood, and will develop their good or curb their evil inclinations in the thousand ever-recurring ways that make the mother's place the proudest, the happiest, and the most responsible in the world. If such are her foremost duties, it follows that it is not right, and therefore it is wrong, for any woman, whose husband can maintain her in comfort, to seek for herself a livelihood which takes her away from home or interferes with her duties therein. No wife consequently has the right to delegate to nurse or housekeeper duties, other than mechanical, which she herself is able to fulfil; thus marriage, and still more maternity, if the husband's means are sufficient, deprives her of the right to practise as a physician, barrister, or in any out-door occupation. What, however, are the rights she needs for her domestic duties? As a daughter she is entitled to the best education her parents can provide; not an instruction that teaches her merely how to speak in various languages, how to sing and how to play,-accomplishments which compose too large a part of many educations, rendering the recipient a mere outside, attractive only to the senses; not a training which developes one faculty at the expense of the rest, but one which draws out her whole nature, that she may become the perfection of her individuality. She is entitled also, as part and parcel of this education, to sympathy in her difficulties and trials, and forbearance towards her faults, to encouragement in her useful aims, and to receive such advice

as will guide her in the bestowal of her love. As a sister she has claim to kind and courteous consideration, and to receive all the friendly aid she needs. As a wife she has a right to her husband's whole heart, and she is entitled that nothing gross or impure should mingle with his heart's love. She has a right, not that he should be always thinking about her, but that the tone and character of all his thoughts should be modified by his love for her, and should thence derive their pleasantness she has a right, in fact, to be the joy of her husband's affections, the brightness of his thoughts, the delight of his life! As a mother she can claim from her children their deepest reverence, their unwearied devotion, their tender sympathy, and their unmeasured gratitude: she has a right to all they can do to make her happy, and not only that they should love and honour her themselves, but that they should seek to cause others to love and honour her also.

From this outline of domestic, let us turn to woman's social duties, and the rights they involve. And these duties are, in the first place, to be useful; second, to exercise hospitality and show sympathy towards her neighbours. The rights which depend upon these are, for the first end, a sufficiency of employment; but the employment must be such as will develop and not repress all that is feminine in her nature. The test, therefore, whether any social work belongs to woman's sphere, is, does it make her by its exercise ever more and more a woman? Her nature is to love, and her love can only fully expend itself upon living beings, or on objects connected with them and their happiness. Her nature therefore always regards the individual, and not the general, still less the abstract. The discovery of broad general laws and principles, which is man's highest delight, brings comparatively little pleasure to woman; but her joy is to give happiness to those individuals whom she loves, and to gather them around her for that end. All work, therefore, which deals only with abstract things, with legal technicalities or regulations, with principles or policies, with abstruse mathematics or routine calculations; all which deals merely with machinery or implements of labour; all which calls upon her to repress sympathy and act contrary to her affections, does not render her more womanly, and hence cannot belong to her sphere; while every occupation by which the home and its inmates can be rendered comfortable and happy, by which she can implant and foster good dispositions in the minds of infancy and childhood, every employment whose duties can be fulfilled with womanly affection, adapted to womanly thought, and accomplished by womanly deed, is her right, and ought not to be taken away from her. She is indeed the wife,—

the weaver for society. The lives which apart from her would be mere isolated, unconnected threads, minds of various quality, and opinions of diverse hue, she unites by the strong ties of social intercourse and relationship; she draws out what is good in every one, and so weaves the whole social fabric that it may be of the most enduring use. Such weaving is hers alone, and the more of her heart she puts into it, the better she will see what the pattern of her own life should be, and what she needs for its perfection.

The question however comes, Is not woman entitled to the suffrage? The answer to this each one can give for herself; here the grounds for forming an opinion can alone be stated. If the exercise of the suffrage aids the female sex in the performance of any social duty, and fits each one meanwhile to fill more perfectly her individual niche, it is a right woman can justly claim; but if when enfranchised she will vote from affection for people rather than principles, or in voting for principles will need to go contrary to her nature; especially should the act of voting tend to impair her modesty,-which is woman's charm of charms, then the suffrage is not her right, and she would be deeply wronged by its bestowal.

Whatever her occupation may be, she has a right to be modest in its exercise, and to have her feminine instincts respected by others. If the mistress of a household, she has a right to such authority as is requisite to maintain order and provide for comfort; if a servant, she is entitled to have both her spiritual and physical well-being promoted. As a hostess, she has a right to know and practise such social usages as will enable her to make her guests feel at home; as a friend or acquaintance, she has a right to make calls at suitable seasons on all whom she can benefit by so doing; not however calling for mere gossip, but that she may interest herself in her neighbours' cares and troubles, in their mental pursuits and occupations, their pleasures and their joys; and to give advice where needed, or receive the same herself. Under all circumstances she has a right to respect the uses of others; to associate with those who may be suitable for the bestowal of her affections, a right to be prudent in her associations and wise in her bestowal, not being led away by outside appearances; above all things, and for ever, she has a right to love.

Woman has still her duties towards God, and their rights to be considered; the latter, though first in importance, are the last to be claimed for these duties are to love God above all things, and her neighbour as herself. Not only do these involve their rights, but each right is given her as a delightful duty. It is only now, as she enters

on the exercise of these rights, that she rises to the dignity of true womanhood. Now she becomes the Ideal of man's thought, the rewarder of his purest aspirations, the guide and comforter of his daily toil. Now she ceases to be a mere outside, made up of sensual perfections; now she is no longer a mere social animal, endowed with speech and thought-under which term all mankind must be classed until animated by religion ;—and she becomes what she was designed to be an organized form and effigy of love Divine. She has a right, therefore, to perform acts of piety, that she may gain strength for these duties; she has a right to reverence the Scriptures, and to permit no jesting in her presence concerning its sacred pages; she has a right to live the life of charity. She has a right to be forgiving, patient, and meek; she has a right to be amiable, gentle, and kind; she has a right to be pure in affection and thought; in fine, she has a right to be all that is angelic here, and thus, through God's grace, to fit herself for being an inmate of heaven hereafter.

It may be gathered from this brief sketch, that woman's duties, with the rights they involve, are not identical with those of man, but are, in fact, their counterpart. It is man's right to love wisdom, it is woman's to embody his wisdom in her character; it is man's to think true thoughts, it is woman's to inspire him with an affection for the truth; it is man's to act justly and sincerely in affairs of business, it is woman's to cherish in him the love of justice and sincerity. In fact, it is woman's to inspire, it is man's to plan and execute; it is man's to endure toil, it is woman's to give him the strongest motive for its endurance, and to supplement his labour by doing that which he is unfitted for. It will be seen, therefore, that those who clamour for Woman's Suffrage, and for liberty to follow the same avocations as man, have regard to things which, even supposing them to be really rights, are but the "mint and anise and cumin," to the neglect of many far "weightier matters." They seek to enlarge the boundaries of woman's domain, while the field she already occupies is badly cultivated, and the mansion in its midst, the "house not made with hands," is too often half-built or unfurnished. They thus, rightly or wrongly, mix up woman's name, in the ideas of the masculine sex, with all that is hard and unfeminine; and while demanding as rights things which, when acquired, bring no happiness, they reduce woman to a mere imperfect copy of man, and so deprive her of her highest privilege, her most excellent right,-the power to inspire affection. T. W. B.

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INTELLECTUAL REPOSITORY.

[We quote the following from the American New Jerusalem Messenger. It may be some encouragement to our contributors to persevere in their labour of love, to find that it is so highly estimated by one who is so competent to judge. We may state that the reviewer of Maudsley's book, had he claimed his right, would have signed his article J. B.]

"I have risen from the perusal of the October number of the Intellectual Repository with such a sense of thorough delight at the intellectual feast it affords, and of profound gratefulness to the editor and contributors for furnishing the same, that I am compelled to make some public expression of my feeling in the hope of calling wider attention to this able New Church periodical, and to win for it a larger circle of readers in this country; and I shall not be sorry if this, my humble testimonial, shall come to the knowledge of the editor and writers themselves to whom I feel myself so much indebted. The Intellectual Repository is to me an old acquaintance and friend of many years' standing. How wide a circulation it has in this country I do not know; I only wish it were wider by ten-fold, and I wish still more that we had in America a magazine equalling it in worth, in richness of well-digested thought, and carefully elaborated discussion of important themes, and in usefulness in affording to the public mind an insight into some of the profounder topics of science and theology. The numbers have not of course been of unvaried excellence-they have not always come up to the high standard of this October number, but they have always been a dignified, thoughtful and, to a high degree, worthy exponent of the intellectual significance of the New Church system of thought and of life. Of the four more important articles in this number, namely, A Sketch of the Science of Psychology,' by the late Rev. W. Woodman, on 'Atoms' by Videsne,' (how I long to know who this writer is), on 'Descartes,' by R. M'Cully, and on 'Maudsley and Swedenborg,' without signature, either one would establish the intellectual character of any periodical, and the presence of all four in one number makes a most brilliant combination, one which seems to realize at last one's idea of what a New Church magazine ought to be. The article on 'Atoms' is a brief review of that part of Tyndall's recent address which treats of Empedocles and his theory, and it is so fraught with spiritual wisdom as to settle the question, it seems to me, for all doubters as to whether the New Church has any light to afford on purely scientific studies.